


Shoulders

by protectoroffaeries



Series: High School AU Stories [7]
Category: Skulduggery Pleasant - Derek Landy
Genre: That's all I can say, chemistry class, shoulders
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-17
Updated: 2016-07-17
Packaged: 2018-07-24 16:03:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,051
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7514537
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/protectoroffaeries/pseuds/protectoroffaeries
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's too hot, but the dress code does not allow shoulders to be bare in the classroom.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Shoulders

**Author's Note:**

> School dress code is something I've spent a lot of time talking about, which is funny because I've never come close to breaking it (t-shirts and jeans every day of the year, baby). 
> 
> However, many of my friends break it all the time by showing their shoulders when wearing tank tops, dresses, and my personal favorite, the shoulderless (but still sleeve-ful) blouse. 
> 
> We always make jokes about shoulders being sexual, and I've seen my friends get very hot because they couldn't take off a jacket or something because their top by itself was against dress code. 
> 
> Now - let me be clear - I'm not anti-dress code. I don't want to see anyone's bra or panties or boxers or any of that. But I think it needs to be modified so that kids can wear things weather appropriate, and I think it needs to be enforced more amongst the male population of schools (I've seen so many guys' boxers and I've never seen them dress coded for it - seriously?!)
> 
> Okay, okay, sorry, I got a little ranty there. On with the story!

Valkyrie Cain looked in the mirror and liked what she saw. It was a lovely dress, a silky grey color, and it went just past her knees. A modest neckline, too. It’d be perfect to wear to school on a hot if only it had sleeves.

It was gift from her Uncle Gordon - kind of. He’d given her a gift card for $200 for her birthday, and she’d used part of the money to buy this dress. Luckily, she used the rest of the money to buy a light shawl to throw over her shoulders, matching, of course. It’d been a great buy not only because it was cute, but because, unlike most of her other clothes, it was appropriate to wear during a heat wave. 

The heat wave had struck out of nowhere two days ago. Valkyrie had worn black skinny jeans to school, and they’d stuck to her in an embarrassingly sweat mess of hot fabric. She wasn’t doing that again. 

***

The heat was unbearable. Valkyrie was positive no one was paying attention to Ms. Rose. Something about biology. Ms. Rose always taught science classes; it was just a matter of which one she was teaching this year. The board had told her she wasn’t the “right fit” for chemistry after she blew up a desk during class last year. 

Valkyrie glanced around to see if any of her classmates were paying attention. Tanith stared off into space. Poor girl ended up with Ms. Rose two years in a row. Gamine Pleasant fanned herself with a sheaf of papers. Larrikin stared up at the ceiling, and by the way his mouth was moving silently, Valkyrie guessed that he was counting the tiles again. He always counted ceiling tiles when he got bored - apparently there were 1,982 tiles on the ceiling in Mr. Deuce’s classroom. He’d counted 233 times, supposedly. 

As her eyes roved the room, Valkyrie shifted her shawl. It wasn’t as light as she’d initially thought, and it was making her torso quite hot. She noticed that Larrikin wasn’t wearing anything but a tank top, and her dress showed about the same amount of shoulder. Maybe Ms. Rose wasn’t the dress coding type. Valkyrie took her shawl off and stuffed it under her chair. 

Ms. Rose wrote something on the board about photosynthesis. She drew a little diagram and put some labels on it, though what any of it meant, Valkyrie didn’t know. Ms. Rose turned around to address the class once more. 

“Now, as I was saying, as the chlorophyll absorb-” Ms. Rose paused and looked straight at Valkyrie. “Miss Cain, if you cannot keep your clothes on,” she snapped, her tone dripping with disdain, “I will dress code you.”

Valkyrie reached for her shawl, but Gamine spoke up before she could put it back on. “Larrikin’s shirt is against dress code, too.”

“What?” said Larrikin, looking startled and a bit confused at the mention of his name. “Oh yeah. I left my jacket in my locker. Too hot.”

“You gonna make him get his jacket?” asked Gamine. 

“I can get it,” Larrikin agreed. “My locker’s in this hall.”

“That won’t be necessary,” Ms. Rose said, her lips in a thin line. “Miss Cain can just put her shawl back on, and then I’ll continue teaching.”

“That’s crap!” Tanith exclaimed. Valkyrie wished she hadn’t taken it off - she hadn’t meant to start something. Although… if she had to be too hot, it would be nice for Larrikin to be too hot as well. Misery loving company and all that. 

“Miss Low, watch your language. We have rules for a reason.”

“Why don’t they apply to Larrikin? Because you didn’t notice?” Tanith demanded.

Ms. Rose seemed pretty pissed off now. “You’re right,” she said through grit teeth. “I didn’t notice he was wearing a tank top. But if he gets up to remedy the situation now, he may never come back.” A valid enough point. Larrikin did sometimes disappear, given the opportunity.

“I noticed,” came a voice from the back of the room, and everyone, Valkyrie included, turned to stare at Saracen Rue. “That he was wearing a tank top, I mean. It’s very distracting,” he concluded, perfectly straight-faced. 

Larrikin burst out laughing. Valkyrie and the rest of the class seemed too stunned to join him. Eventually, Ms. Rose said, “You’re… distracted by Larrikin’s shoulders?”

“Almost as distracted as you were by Valkyrie’s, Ms. Rose,” Saracen said sweetly. That was it; he was definitely Valkyrie’s new hero.

“I find them quite distracting, too,” Gamine piped up, and since she was sitting right next to Larrikin, she laid a hand on his upper arm, which only inspired Larrikin to laugh harder. “His upper arm here, too. If only he were wearing sleeves, maybe I could focus. As it is, I think he’s responsible for my failing grade.” She sighed dramatically. 

Ms. Rose opened her mouth to say something, but Tanith beat her to it. “ _ I  _ was so distracted by Larrikin’s shoulders that I didn’t even notice Valkyrie take her shawl off. I think that, since his shoulders are more distracting than Valkyrie’s,  _ he _ should put on the shawl.”

“I second that,” Gamine and Saracen said at the same time. 

Larrikin was wheezing from laughing so much, but he still managed to extend a hand toward Valkyrie. “Give me the shawl,” he said between breaths. 

Valkyrie went to hand him the shawl, but Ms. Rose snatched it from her grip. “That’s enough out of all of you,” she shouted firmly. She sighed heavily. “I do apologize for not noticing Larrikin’s shoulders. Apparently, they are very attractive, so I don’t know how I could have missed them,” she bit out sarcastically, which caused multiple people to snicker and snort. “From now on, no one, male or female, will be allowed in my classroom with their shoulders uncovered.”

Ms. Rose paused for a long moment. “From now on, starting next class. For the rest of this period, and  _ this period only _ , I will allow you all to take your jackets off because of the heat… and to make up for my oversight. Are we clear?”

The class nodded and mumbled affirmatives over the sound of jackets, shawls, and the like being removed. 

  
“Good,” Ms. Rose said. “Now, as I was saying... “


End file.
